Some of us look back on our teen fashion choices and hang our heads.
Others, like Rose Lowe and her friend Pixie, spend years hunting down a pattern to recreate the "outlandish" shoe that carried them beyond the confines of childhood and into the world.
The shoe in question — Treads — is believed to be a predominantly Victorian fashion statement.
A hulking sandal constructed from recycled tyres, suede, glue and nails, it was adored by the cool kids of the 1970s.
Ms Lowe, who moderates the Treads – Bring Them Back Facebook page, acquired her first pair when she was 14 after her mother died and she was left to her own devices.
They were the shoes worn by tough, wild kids like surfies and sharpies, she said.
'Culture of crafting'
Buoyed by memories of teenage obsession ('the one thing I remember wearing'), after four years of searching, and with the help of several thousand Facebook group members, Ms Lowe and Pixie succeeded.
They found a man living in Melbourne's south-east willing to sell them a paper pattern and some materials for the shoe.
Between 2013 and 2018 they held dozens of day-long workshops where treads aficionados could make themselves a pair.
While they wove, they 'chatted about the stuff we used to do as kids', Ms Lowe said.
The workshop recreations evoked what cultural historian Margot Riley called the 'do-it-yourself culture of the '70s'.
The shoe parents loved to hate
Ms Riley, a curator at the State Library of New South Wales, said in the 1970s "there really wasn't an established way for young people to access fashion that didn't look like what their parents were wearing".
They could do this by op-shopping, or creating things themselves.
"Their parents were absolutely appalled," Ms Riley said.
"For adults at that time second-hand clothing had really poor association to depression mentality or poverty."
Writing on her '70s nostalgia blog 'Woorilla Caught', Cindy Amey describes treads as the shoe 'kids loved, and parents hated'.
"Perhaps it was the slovenly look which the older generation took exception to," she wrote.
It is a useful insight for Ms Riley.
The image of teenagers 'schlumping around' in heavy sandals which changed the way they walked speaks to how outlandish they were, Ms Riley said.
Little is known about the origins of treads, but Ms Riley wonders if the style, especially the use of recycled tyre soles, could have been brought back from Asia by young Australian travellers.
But she says, "I don't know this for a fact, there really is very little research done about treads".
In her teenage years, Rose Lowe didn't make her own, she remembers buying them from a surf shop in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Mentone.
She said the shop outsourced production to local pieceworkers who would weave pre-cut pieces of suede into the recycled tyre rubber soles.
Treads are back
Now, shoemaker Pamela Gower has begun making treads and selling them online.
"I grew up in the '70s on the Mornington Peninsula, the slightly older kids had them, we never had them, they were a bit expensive", she told ABC Melbourne Afternoons.
Ms Gower is also curious about their origins.
She believes the weave is similar in style to the Mexican huarache sandal which was also popularised in the 1970s by hippies.
Working from an old bacon factory in Ballarat, she is now carving out a niche making retro shoes from the 1970s.
"I didn't think they were going to be comfortable, and then I made some," she said.
"I couldn't believe how comfortable the rubber sole was, it doesn't slip, even if they're a bit worn."
Ms Gower has had to source old tyres, as new tyres have metal in the rubber making them unusable.
It is painstaking work, but she is finding customers.
With their recycled soles she said treads were ahead of their time, and she hoped they could find some new fans.
Do you know more about treads or have some photos to share? Send us an email.
